2011 Foreclosure Verdict

In the last few years, there have been an unprecedented number of foreclosures.  So are we finding our way out of this mess?  How did 2011 fare compared to recent years?  RealtyTrac recently released some figures that can help us see where we stand.

Well, overall 2011 was better than 2008, 2009, and 2010.  In Cook County, there was a 30% drop in foreclosure filings from 2010.  56,648 homes in Cook County went into foreclosure in 2011, and that was 30% less than 2010.  Wow.  Nationally, the drop was larger — 34%.  Despite this reduction, the average foreclosure case took over 550 days in court to resolve.

Does this large 30% reduction mean that the end is in sight?  Well, maybe it’s in sight, but it’s still very far away.  While there was a large reduction in foreclosure filings last year, most of the reductions were attributed to the banks slowing down their filings in the second and third quarter while they tried to catch up on their backlog.

During the fourth and last quarter of 2011, on the other hand, foreclosure activity increased.  In Chicago and its suburbs, there was a 62% increase in court-ordered auctions in the last three months of 2011.  Lenders also reposessed 11% more homes in the last quarter of 2011 than in the last quarter of 2010.

So for now, foreclosures are still out there, and supposedly as lenders catch up, more will be coming on the market for sale as well.